Sandy Arena was a place where mostly fights occurred. Whether a spars till the first blood or knockout or brawls between people whose opinions didn't match. It was a dreadful place which people entered only on a serious note and left either with shattered expression or too much joy for winning a spar fight. Sandy Arena wasn't the appropriate place for a young genin with barely any offensive or defensive abilities.

Despite that, Sun found herself quite often in this arena. People never judged her for being here instead of helping out in the hospital which was currently full of common folk needing all sorts of help. Including mental help. She had her reasons, of course. No, she never participated in fights. No, she wasn't there to copy techniques and prepare herself to fight the same opponents some time in future. She was just a spectator. She did notice many things. For one, people were way more brutal than necessary. Close combat fights rarely stopped when someone was bleeding. Close combat fights rarely used mock weapons too. Weapons were made from real sharpened steel and they were used in a spar match without hesitation. And those jutsus... they were unnecessarily big. Almost with intention to only impress their peers. Secondly, this place saw janitor even more seldom than slums. You could probably find blood here in the sand from second kazekage. No, it's not exaggeration, Sun has found garbage dating from Second Shinobi World War. Thirdly, there were no medical-nins present. Sure, this wasn't academy spars anymore. But everyone was entitled to immediate treatment. She had never seen even a band-aid, let alone first aid kit placed somewhere in the arena.

And that's why Sun was here. She didn't get paid or asked to visit the arena everyday, but she just did. She needed practice and this was as good practice as she could get. The dolls or puppets with some fake wounds were useless for real practice. A real human being is in shock when he is bleeding hard. He can have broken bones which Sun can't yet repair. She has to be gentle and careful with real, living people, unlike wooden puppets or dolls. In reality there will be those who will annoy her by asking ''can we help?'' and those who will kick some sand in wound so an infection takes place. Of course, Sun has to be careful as well to clear the wound from sand grains. Actually, the most common reason why someone does get an infection afterwards is because Sun had sand on her own hands. She usually just wipes her hands in her clothes, but there is no assurance that there are no sand on her clothes. Usually there is, of course, because those benches she sit on are dirty.

Sun was sitting on a semi-dirty greenish bench far from the action, but ready to move in and help if needed. The bench was screwed tight into the concrete ground. Surprisingly, majority of those benches still had the tree planks nailed together to sit on. They were not broken. It's ironic how the spectator's space was well made, but the actual fight arena was just sand and walls on the sides. Sun was wearing a checkered blouse and above-knee blue skirt. She had her leather bag besides her. She was resting her right arm on it. Currently she was rather bored and thinking of leaving the arena. There were some genin doing puppet sparring. It usually ends well judging by what she has seen. And those two said genin weren't doing too well. It seemed like they had barely any control over those puppets. At some times they just fell down to the ground or missed attacks by more than just a few feet. She was looking around in hopes to expect a friend to appear. In that case they could make some plans and go do stuff. Like go gossiping or go eat something. Her friends were keen on talking with Sun, and they knew where to look for Sun most of the times. But apparently not today. She didn't want to look awkward and just leave alone after sitting there for half an hour. So she decided to sit here for a while longer. Who knows maybe some jounins decided to come for a spar meanwhile. Jounin abilities were fearsome and after those spars a medical attention was needed. It's strange how jounin - grown up shinobi never thought of bringing their own medical-nin.
770 words

It rattled the depths of his normally cool and calm soul, walking toward that massive arena. Futoshi, for months, had been nothing more than an errand boy for the administration building and a fruit-stand keeper for the lovely old business woman he called "Boss." Intentionally avoiding conflict and violence is something some would call cowardice, but Futoshi had his reasons. It was such a more calm and steady lifestyle to just live as a civilian. If it weren't for the fact that his heart strings felt pulled, and the administrative staff had been asking him more frequently why he didn't take more missions or join a squad, he would just keep things as they were. The calm and composed demeanor he carried with him was a gift from his father. The other side was one he wished to keep dormant. The gift from his mother was the rage. The violent fury that resided inside him, some would call it a kekkei genkai, but Futoshi called it a curse.

Tonight's destination of choice had simply logic behind it. With his decision to begin taking his career a shinobi seriously, he was going to have know exactly what his reaction to violence was going to be. Rather than entering into some sort of spar and subjecting another living being to unnecessary risk, he thought it would be a more intelligent choice to come be a spectator of the overly-masculine, testosterone fueled arena fighting. These spectator fueled grudge-matches were designed ages ago to give people something to gather for in the oftentimes mundane lifestyle of living in a desert village. It worked, to whatever ends, as upwards of a thousand people would gather there on those stands each night to watch people test their battle fervor. The attraction even doubled as a tourism hub, drawing in people from far and wide. Perhaps that's more of an embarrassing fact, the entire civilized world realizes this practice is preposterous and undignified.

Nevertheless, here he was, approaching those looming gates. He wore an open, tan colored button-up shirt with a black t-shirt beneath it. The khaki cargo pants he wore were a little warm than what he found ideal. He had avoided the long lines by being fashionably late. With a wholesome smile and a quick bow, he passed by the ticketmaster after making his purchase. The first thing he noticed was the scale of the place. It was even more massive on the inside. On top of that, no barriers existed between the combatants and the people. Signs were posted across the walls.

"Sunagakure no Sato is not responsible for any injuries. Attend at your own risk."

Lightning sparked across the large circular sand pit which lay in the center of all of the gathering masses. The battle occurring below was fast paced, they were experienced fighters, using abilities that could easily kill. The people gathered around, children even, seemed to be completely unaware of that nasty little fact. Would that be considered child endangerment? It really didn't matter. Nobody seemed to take mind.

There was a nearly unoccupied green-colored bench just to the side of the entrance. Only one person occupied said bench, and compared to the rather ravenous crowd surrounding them, that one girl looked the least menacing. He took a seat, careful to give her plenty of personal space as he adjusted himself, begrudgingly raising his head to start taking in the unfolding violence before him. Apparently he has arrived just in the knick of time, as these jounin seemed to have only just begun their spar. To the untrained eye, it was nothing more than a light show. But to shinobi, this was a battle worth watching.

At this level of combat, all it took was one wrong step to end someone's entire life. That being considered, it took even more skill to ensure one didn't overdo it and face manslaughter charges. The two were going at it with pretty intense Bukijutsu movements. Both of them wielded traditional eastern swords, it was hard for Futoshi to name them, as he never dabbled much in weapon arts.

While the fight and all was very interesting, the smile of relief that spread across his face wasn't in reference to the violent onslaught before his eyes. It was due to the fact that his fears were overturned. The sight of violence had no effect on him. He wasn't a loose cannon. His rage was as under control as he needed it to be. The only further test would be an actual spar, but that was for another time.

The girl next to him in the checkered blouse seemed to stare into the fray with more concern. That was unlike the others in the crowd who stated with a fantasticism in their eyes. Perhaps she wasn't there for the same reasons as the others. Much like Futoshi wasn't. He decided to bring himself, and her, away from the barbaric practice if only for a moment of conversation.

"You don't seem too enthralled by all of the glorious bloodshed. These people around us bask in it, having no idea just what the price of violence truly is. I'm ashamed to have had to donate to this cause tonight. Violence without true purpose is sinister. What brings you to a place like this?"

He would adjust his gaze over toward her, making sure she was able to hear him over the sounds of the very "flashy" Raiton using jounin in the battle. His techniques were loud and thunderous. Not to mention the cheering from the crowd. It was all a little overwhelming and not his favorite way to spend a weeknight.

Just as he awaited her reply, a flash of raiton burst again and a thud sounded. The other jounin, who had been utilizing no real elemental techniques, hit the ground hard. He was singed with second  degree burns, and bleeding profusely from his chest. The brutal consequences of spectator sport were apparent now.

WC: 1016

The fight going on was loud and it even gripped Sun. She wasn't cheering for one of the participants and wanting the other to lose. Opposite in fact, she watched with great terror every attack hoping that it would go in vain. She was indeed gripped by the fight, her eyes were focused on the fighters, her fists clenched and feet feeling heavy. Obviously, she didn't feel comfort in this dreadful place. She felt disgust and didn't pay much attention to the people taking bets and expecting blood.

Sun didn't notice anyone approaching her. There wasn't much walking or moving from other spectators therefore some minor movements went unseen. But she didn't notice it when a boy sit down almost right next to her. She was startled when this boy spoke. The cheering around the arena was irregular and incomprehensible to the girl, but when the boy talked it almost seemed like some ghost whispered in her ear for she wasn't aware of the boy's presence. Undoubtedly she was startled by his first sentence. Only then she took her eyes off the fight and glanced at the speaker. It was an older man. Probably came here to see fights or even participate in one. He was way bigger than Sun and she felt a little insecure having sit him right next to her. Because of his white hair he looked way older than he actually was. His clothes weren't anything impressive however. A plain button-up shirt and pants. Truly looked like someone who came here to pick a fight. Sun had no idea for what reason he would decide to take the seat next to her. Looking at him, she instinctively smiled while listening to the rest of what the boy was saying.

His speech was something unexpected. He implied he didn't come here to fight and what the boy guessed about Sun was mostly true. Sun didn't go to arena to enjoy the fights. People around probably didn't know how it felt when a loved one got hurt (and probably every fighter in the arena had some kind of family or people who cared about him) let alone die. But Sun didn't feel ashamed to be here. She was expecting to do a noble job. And before answering the boy's question and to punish him for not introducing himself, she decided to tease him a little. She made a little lie - of course she didn't approve of the actions going on here, but nevertheless she acted like they were necessary:"I disagree with you! Violence going on here is for a very good cause.", she took a little pause to let the boy ingest what she was saying, "Imagine a scenario. Sunagakure is attacked by rogue ninjas for example. Would you rather hope we were defended by that winning jounin or the losing one?" she made a fair point, but obviously it would be better if both jounin joined arms in her scenario.

"By the way, I'm Sun," she then took a pause and thought if she wanted to make the man feel more uncomfortable (because she thought that her opinion about the fight already made a weird impression about the young girl), "you ought to introduce yourself when you talk to girls," she decided to let out her inner devil after all. She then turned her head back to the action in the middle, but kept on hoping that the man wouldn't feel irritated and left.

At this very moment the fight had stopped. You could notice by the raising cheers of the crowd. One man in the middle was lying on his face, the other was receiving applause. The sand beneath the loser was filling with blood. His body must've suffered katon techniques as well. "Come with me, will you?" Sun had serious expression when she told this to the man she had just tried to insult. She quickly then stood up, forgetting her leather bag with first aid on the bench. Without noticing or caring about it she then hurried off jumping over benches and people and finally dropping off the wall that sealed the arena.

Without stopping she continued her way to the loser. The winning jounin didn't care about anything else but receiving more applause and good words from the crowd. Maybe the average fan indeed had the mindset like Sun had previously described - the winner of these fights is better at defending our village. Now Sun also noticed that there were no wound on the man's back she was about to treat. It all was on his front body. She first checked for pulse on his arm - ... - it was all right. She tried to flip him over by dragging his hand across his weak body. But this man was way bigger than he looked like from distance. She wasn't strong enough to handle big men. Medical-nin staff had way too many women in the first place. Young fragile girls were in no position to handle someone twice their weight. "Flip him over for me, will you?" she said to man that was supposed to follow her.
876 words

Futoshi had been a social butterfly when he was forced to be around people. Normally his little opinionated rants and speeches were met with nothing but approval, and agreement. He tried to read people before he opened up conversation, just to make sure the conversation itself would go without issue. This young girl had a different idea entirely.

Her first reply was a disagreement. She looked over at him and smiled politely before voicing her opposing statement. This caused his eyes to widen momentarily. As he looked out upon the fight, which was readily drawing to a close. He smiled them also, the disagreement was a welcome challenge. While he did see her point of view had its merit, she was mistaken about one thing, and he was going to let her hear it.

"Well, the answer which first comes to mind is that the strongest fighter would be the best defender of our humble sand village. But to the decorated thinker, would they not be twice the force to be reckoned with? As shinobi we are not empty shells of combat ability. We are not judged by whether we are stronger than our peers. We are judged by whether we are stronger than those who would destroy our way of life. We only need to be collectively stronger than our enemies."

He felt confident that his retort was well placed, but there wasn't enough time to do much more talking. She introduced herself as Sun. An interesting name, the sun was the most vibrant and luminous thing in the sky, after all. In addition to that she quickly made a jab at him, telling him he ought to introduce himself when talking to girls.

He chuckled and did so as requested "My name is Futoshi. My apologies for not doing so sooner I...

There was no time to speak. One of the combatants was on the ground, and Sun sprung into action as if it were her one and only calling. She spoke quickly as she made her way into the fray, asking...no, commanding Futoshi to come with her. He did so with a smirk, and kept at her side with a quick pace over to the injured jounin. She appeared to be a medic, and was serious about her job. He was apparently a helping hand at this time, whether voluntary or not he found it worthy of a grin as he followed her orders and gently flipped over the full grown man. The situation was nothing to smile at, this man was really injured. Jounin level wounds were nothing to scoff at. Death himself would be smart to linger around these battles, because the possibility was high.

The other jounin was busy flaunting himself to the crowd, flexing his muscles and using flashy raiton based attacks just for show. The crowd adored him. "Lutra" they cheered. What an ugly name that was. For a man with as ugly an attitude as this, it was fitting.

Post WC: 500
Total WC: 1516

In the end this Futoshi guy came out as a big help. Once he had flipped over the injured man, Sun could start saving him. There was no doubt at least second degree burns on his chest and an open bleeding wound. She immediately placed her both hands on top of each other and then placed them above the bleeding wound. She started transmitting chakra from her own body to the wound. Her hands were blazing in yellow colour. "Please no artery," she was talking to herself. She wasn't able to repair artery wounds yet and those didn't happen often in the arena. But then again - these two fighters were jounins. Soon the wound was sealed with skin and the bleeding stopped. Next up - dealing with burns. If those really were second degree burns, she could continue using the same technique. The reddened skin soon started to look as the rest of jounin's body. Thankfully you couldn't go wrong with dealing with burns and those were all soon dealt with.

While the jounin still lied unconscious, it was a good time to talk with Futoshi and look at their surroundings. The people were apparently cheering "Lutra". Sun had never heard of him. Probably just some prick. But so probably was this guy lying here. The girl judged people too quickly. Almost the same way she had misjudged Futoshi. "Thanks a lot!" she said to Futoshi. It was unlike her to be at loss of words, but she really couldn't think of anything more to tell this man. Sun rarely thought about what she was going to say before saying it, since she never said rude things. But this time it was different, she was thinking hard of what to say in order to not provoke or insult Futoshi.

Finally she was able to take her mind off this confusing situation. But that's because she realized her bag was missing. It wasn't nowhere near on the sand. And it obviously wasn't just left at home, since she goes nowhere with her leather bag with first aid kit in it. "You didn't take my bag did you?!" she jokingly accused Futoshi though it could be misinterpreted as an actual accusation. But it was an absurd accusation because his hands were empty and it would be weird to try and stick that bag under clothes.

At this moment the wounded jounin had regained consciousness. He looked around very confused and tried to force his way up only finding his body weak and injured. "Hey, hey now!" Sun was now talking to the jounin, "Don't force yourself up yet. I have no idea about the status of your internal organs and arteries. In fact, you could die any moment now," and that wasn't a lie, but it scared the shinobi and he kept resting his body in sand. "Now," she kept talking with the ninja lying in sand, "this guy," she pointed at Futoshi, "just saved your life," it was needless to argue this, without Futoshi's help this jounin wouldn't have received any kind of treatment, "leave it to him to take you to the hospital!" she now smiled at Futoshi and changed her facial expression to a silly one - she stuck her tongue out and winked with her left eye.

Then she excused herself without answering any of Futoshi's question and hurried off back to her seat in hopes to find her bag there. When she jumped on the wall closing the arena, she looked back at Futoshi and told "You truly were a big help today. Thanks! I hope to see you again!" and then she left Futoshi with the jounin all alone. She hoped that Futoshi wouldn't refuse to lend his shoulder and carry the wounded to Sunagakure's hospital. It was vital after all.
649
[Exit]
Total word count: 2295
Training:
Endurance from E-0 to D-0: 750/750
Reaction time from E-0 to D-0: 750/750
Speed from E-0 to D-0: 750/750
Leftovers: 2295-2250=45 words

jutsu used:

The girl immediately went hard to work on the broken body of the jounin who laid out before them on the sandy arena floor. She would occasionally frantically speak to herself. It would seem she really didn't want this injury to be one of arterial nature. Perhaps she did not yet have the medical know how to repair a wound of that gravity. She would be hard pressed for something like that to not be the case, this fight was between two jounin. The end blow would've most likely been aimed for something crippling enough to render the opponent null for any further conflict.

Futoshi gave her a smile with a quick knod as he helped the battered man to his feet, supporting most of his weight as he walked him to the hospital, which was only about a block from the arena. Futoshi gave Sun a smile and wave as she wished him well and told him she hoped to see him again.

He remained at her side during the whole healing procedure, ready to assist with anything else that went wrong, or any other lifting that needed doing. It was quite admirable to see a young girl like her coming out into the heat like this, in an arena such as this, just to try and save lives. He could tell this wasn't her job. She was here most likely here on her own free will. It was a passion of hers to preserve life. Maybe even deeper than that. It was possible that maybe to her it was a duty. Either way, it was still incredibly admirable.

Once the jounin was seemingly successfully mended, Sun thanked Futoshi. It wasn't necessary at all, and he voiced that clearly as she said it.

"No need to thank me, it was a pleasure to help!"

The young girls bag was apparently missing, and her first reaction was to jokingly accuse Futoshi of stealing it. He humored her with a playful shrug before they noticed movement from their patient.

The jounin regained consciousness and tried to get up in a panick. Futoshi placed a hand in his shoulder as he tried to stand and held him down gently, at that same time Sun told him to relax, that death could've been knocking on his doors at any moment of there were internal injuries sustained. It was evident that this particular jounin had no medical training because he was rather disturbed upon hearing that. In the next few lines of her dialogue, Sun would tell the man that Futoshi has saved his life, and that he would be taking him to the hospital. Her cheeky wink and sticking out her tongue told Futoshi he no longer had any choice in the matter.

He looked over to the man, and gave him a quick run down.

"She saved your life. I'm just the helping hand. If you feel weak or tired during this short walk don't hesitate to ask, we can stop and rest. Otherwise I'll be taking you directly to the emergency care. What else are we genin useful for?"

[Exit Thread]
Post WC: 526
Total WC: 2042

Strength: E to E-3 | 450 words
Reaction Time: E to E-3 | 450 words
Endurance: E: E to E-3 | 450 words
Speed: E to E-3 | 450 words
242 remaining words.